Donald Trump fired Corey Lewandowski. Now CNN has hired him.

Corey Lewandowski will join CNN as a political commentator.

(Image credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

published 23 June 2016

Days after Donald Trump fired him as campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski is reportedly already back to work. Politico reported Thursday that CNN has hired the controversial Republican operative as a political commentator, a position that is salaried and "effective immediately." Lewandowski will now work exclusively with CNN.

After Lewandowski was fired Monday morning, allegedly at the behest of Trump's adult children, he gave his "first in-studio" interview to CNN's Dana Bash, Politico reports. In the interview, Lewandowski maintained that he didn't know why he was fired from the campaign, and that he was "proud" of all that they'd accomplished. Lewandowski was a particularly controversial figure in the Trump campaign, both for his clashes with staff and for allegedly roughly grabbing former Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields at an event.

Trump has been similarly vague on the reasons behind Lewandowski's ouster. The presumptive GOP nominee told Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor on Monday that Lewandowski "did a great job, but we're going to go a little bit of a different route."